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Jim Becker Steps Down At Bellevue Publisher

Jim Becker, the co-founder of Northwest book packager becker & meyer!, will become the creative director of SmartLab. According to Publisher’s Weekly, Mike Oprins will take over as president of becker&mayer! after serving as the company’s COO.

The company headquartered in Bellevue, WA, produces a wide variety of books and toys, generating more than 75 titles annually for publishing, institutional, and retail partners. Recent projects include Buffy: The Making of a Slayer Deluxe Edition for Amazon’s 47North; The Pixar Treasures for Disney Editions; Kittenhood for Abrams; Teeny Tiny Animal Crochet for Sterling Innovation; and Star Wars® Mega Models for DK Publishing.

The company began when Becker and his business partner Andrew Meyer created a thumb-wrestling board book with holes for players’ thumbs. Since then, their projects routinely incorporated interactive elements or, for children’s books, were paired with toys.

In 2004, Becker started the educational toy company SmartLab to create art and science toys.

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